5min
Module 1: The Lean Startup Mindset
Module 2: Defining Your Vision
Module 3: The Build-Measure-Learn Feedback Loop
Module 4: The Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
Module 5: Validating with Customers
Module 6: Pivoting or Persevering
20/23 Lessons
Content
Assignment
In the Build-Measure-Learn loop, the "Learn" phase leads to one of two critical decisions: to pivot or to persevere. A pivot is a fundamental change in your business strategy, a structured course correction designed to test a new hypothesis after the initial one has been invalidated. It is the core mechanism of adaptive innovation.
1. When to Pivot: The Signals
Knowing when to pivot is a skill. It requires honesty and a clear-eyed analysis of your data. You should consider a pivot when:
Your MVP tests have consistently invalidated your Leap-of-Faith Assumption.
Your actionable metrics (from A/B tests or cohorts) show that customers are not engaging with your product as you expected.
You've conducted customer interviews and found that your target market has a different, more pressing problem that you could solve.
The market is responding to one feature of your product, but ignoring all the others.
2. Common Types of Pivots
A pivot is not a random change; it's a strategic move to test a new, more promising hypothesis. Here are a few common types of pivots you might make:
Pivot Type
Zoom-In Pivot
Customer Segment Pivot
Platform Pivot
Revenue Stream Pivot
Description
A single feature of your product becomes the entire product.
You realize your product solves a problem for a different type of customer than you originally intended
You change from an application to a platform or vice-versa.
A simple video that explains your product's value proposition and shows how it works. A call to action (like signing up) is placed at the end.
Example
A company building a suite of collaboration tools realizes that its most popular feature, a team chat, is the only thing customers want. The company pivots to make the chat tool its sole product.
A service built for professional artists realizes that amateur hobbyists are the ones who are actually paying for it. The company pivots to focus exclusively on this new customer segment.
A social network becomes a marketplace, allowing third-party sellers to build businesses on its platform.
Validating a product concept quickly and powerfully (Dropbox famously used this).